Monday, June 30, 2014

Our Supreme Court just destroyed this country once and for all, and Republicans are completely to blame this time. The conservative wing of the court, the same assholes that routinely whine and scream about "activist judges," got just that when in two 5-4 decisions, corporations are now not only people, but ones with religious views as well, along with a move that will destroy the last vestiges of unions, and with it any workers rights we have left. Congratulations to the far right, you've gotten what you've always wanted: the end of everything.

Contraception is no longer a fundamental right for anyone to have, which means we may be seeing more people into an already too crowded planet. Also, corporations now have card blanche to deny any activity they deem "against their religious principles," which could be anything from blood transfusions, vasectomies, mammograms, or even medication. Writing for the dissent, Ginsberg said the ruling will create "havoc," for the same reasons I mentioned above. We are rapidly becoming a full on fascist state and the right is leading the charge. Way to go Republicans, you've become the new Nazi party and you don't even realize it.

Not to be outdone by that ruling, they also killed mandatory union dues in places where people opt out of joining the union. Now I would agree that people shouldn't have to pay for union dues when they have zero chance of ever getting into one. I have seen this either first hand myself or through others' stories working for companies like CBS or UPS, where people are demanded union dues, knowing full well they will be let go long before the union lets them join, which is never. However, this case had to do with people opting out of unions, which shouldn't be allowed in the first place, but still having to pay dues. This will further destabilize an already dying industry and lead to less money being giving to the anti-douchebag party or the democrats as they are better known. I hate Republicans today with the fire of thousand suns. Fuck them!

Martin Armstrong, a convicted fraudster but one who knows his way around the financial markets, said we headed for an epic collapse. He has claimed to predict the crash of 1987 and did invent an economic confidence model still used today, so he does know what he is talking about, his criminal past aside. This is from his latest article:

The greatest problem we have is misinformation. People simply
do not comprehend why and how the economic policies of the post-war era are
imploding. This whole agenda of socialism has sold a Utopian idea that the State
is there for the people yet it is run by lawyers following their own
self-interest. The pensions created for those in government drive the cost of
government up exponentially with time. The political forces blame the rich and
this merely creates a class warfare with no resolution for the future. Even
confiscating all the wealth of the so-called rich will not sustain the system.
Consequently, we just have to crash and burn and start all over again.The exploitation by the bankers has been really a disaster. They have been
their own worst enemy and in the end, they have become the symbol that inspires
class warfare if not revolution. They are not the representatives of those who
produce jobs. They are merely those who wanted to trade with other people’s
money for free. When they win, it is their’s, but any losses are passed to the
taxpayers. Bankers should be bankers – not hedge fund managers who keep 100% of
the profits using other people’s savings.

The repeal of Glass Steagall was the final straw that broke the back of the
world economy. That was the single worst act that could have ever been done and
we are now paying the price in spades. The collapse from 2007 has wiped out even
the liquidity of the markets. The second worst act was the creation of the euro
when the real goal was the federalization of Europe from the outset. That
undermined the entire European banking system and has led to a serious
undermining of the entire global economy.The solutions from politics will always be the same – grab more power. We are
in a downward spiral of liberty and how far we go down this path to the future
will be determined by the people and if they at least wise up and see this is
not class warfare, it is the people against government. This is why I say career
politicians are dangerous for they can be bought way too easily as Clinton was
to open the flood gates for the bankers.This is not going to end pretty. The question is when does society
wake up? Just how high will this price be that we have to pay? They
will blame the rich and the idiots will cheer – get them. What will happen when
there is no more wealth to hunt? We end up with a communist state by default –
no wealth, just career politicians who blame everyone but themselves.
Tell me he isn't dead on about the system. It is done, burned, crispy, dead and buried. It is only a matter of time before the whole house of cards crashes at this point because it simply cannot be fixed. Unfortunately, as Armstrong predicts, and fixes may be too little too late for a nation of people too brain dead to do anything before it is far too late. We lack any ability in this country to see farther than two inches in front of us, and it is killing us. By the time the economy starts to nosedive, hyper-inflation takes hold, and services dry up, we face two possibilities, anarchy or police state. Both sound shitty.

Steps to "fix" the problems include massive austerity, tax cuts for the rich, bail ins (coming to a bank near you soon and already in Europe), and the end of all social programs. How long do you this country stands at that point?

Today, the Central Bank and the BIS both issued warnings that they see dire news ahead for housing, the stock market, bonds, tuition and car loans. They both say the stock markets are completely devoid of reality, and when the correction inevitably happens, it is going to be catastrophic. Because nothing is being done to correct the situation, when the downturn happens, they are going to be completely unprepared. Awesome. So just like you have read here for years now, we did nothing to fix the problem, with everyone on Earth getting some of the blame, from Obama, to the GOP, to OWS, to the US public, to myself. None of us have done anything that could have fixed anything, although I have done my part as best I can being a cripple by informing you out there best I can over what is really happening right now.

This is from the BIS, a Swiss based financial institution that makes regular reports on the banking system worldwide, wrote this today:

“… it
is hard to avoid the sense of a puzzling disconnect between the markets’
buoyancy and underlying economic developments globally…. Despite the
euphoria in financial markets, investment remains weak. Instead of adding to productive capacity, large firms prefer to
buy back shares or engage in mergers and acquisitions.

As history reminds us, there is little appetite for taking the long-term view.Few are
ready to curb financial booms that make everyone feel illusively
richer. Or to hold back on quick
fixes for output slowdowns, even if such measures threaten to add fuel to
unsustainable financial booms. Or to address balance sheet problems head-on
during a bust when seemingly easier policies are on offer. The temptation to go
for shortcuts is simply too strong, even if these shortcuts lead nowhere in the
end.

Or, the exact same thing Armstrong and myself have said. Once again, a lack of preparation has doomed us all. With no long term strategy, think Iraqi war for an example. Yeah, we can invade easily, but then what? Same goes for banks running up stocks through buybacks and equity manipulation, but the end result is always the same: collapse.Now due to the recent Supreme Court ruling on birth control and abortion, we may soon see a day when it is next to impossible to get either. And because of no long term planning on this front, many cities are dying. Detroit is shutting off water for those who can't pay, meaning people in a major US city now have the same water rights as Somalia or Yemen. The UN has rightfully denounced this as no one should be paying for basic human rights like food or water of they cannot afford it. And then there is California and Nevada, both of which are running out of water. Even worse, they are still building homes into an area that cannot support the population it has. In the next twenty years, Lake Mead will be bone dry. That means no more water for Las Vegas. Then what? I am thinking a mass exodus. But to where? Thus the rub that we do not look at long term situations that make people deny climate change, fossil fuel issues, overfishing and a dozen other things people don't care or believe in. They should but Fox News has convinced a sizable portion or retards in this country that Obama is the cause for everything. And while he should get some of the blame for a lot of things, the GOP has been at the forefront of this for some time now.Vegas uses more water than any other city, which is odd as they live in a desert. They have tried to build a new pipeline but have hit snags due to environmental objections and so far has gone nowhere. Check out this map which shows how dry the West Coast is with a drought that may not end for hundreds of years, climate change or not. What then?Because we keep voting corporate morons into office, we are destroying this nation. For anyone who has voted for any Republican over the last twenty years, this is what you've done: you've killed us all, including yourself, your kids, your parents, your pets, everything. If your ultimate goal was to wreck this country so no one could have it, like some bitter ex, you've succeeded in spades. Mosel Tov. The same can be said for democrats who can't be bothered to get off their lazy asses and demand more from their party as well. We are all to blame. And because of that, we are so doomed, screwed blue, and reamed up the ass that there is little hope left. Great.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Just when you think the Republican party can sink no lower, they find a new depth to lower themselves to. John Boehner is trying to sue the president for use of executive orders, which is never going to fly, and even if it somehow does, considering the almost made it Supreme Court for top honors this week, could have lasting effects towards them as well. Let's see those runner ups.

1)Anyone who bought tickets for Transformers- I sincerely mean this toward anyone who paid good money to see the crap fest known as the Transformers this weekend: Fuck off! You assholes are killing the movie business with your shitty taste and it has to stop. This piece of garbage will be number one this week with over a hundred million in earnings. Nevermind the fact that both critics and fan boys slammed this movie as, and I quote, "cinematic piss," some of you went in droves to watch a film with no plot designed solely to sell toys. Snowpiercer, a new film from acclaimed director Joon-ho Bong, and an all star cast is nowhere to be found in my neck of the woods, but Transformers is IN FOUR FUCKING THEATERS!!! Michael Bay is starting to really piss me off as his last few movies have sucked hard. For the love of God, direct something else, other than this or the painful Pain and Gain. Or just stop, your choice.

2)KFC Hoax- Last week it was reported that a little girl with bites on her face from a pit bull attack was booted from a local KFC because her injuries were upsetting the others customers. Money was raked in and then it came to light the whole thing was a hoax, that they were never at the KFC in question. The good news is doctors have said they will still help the little girl, as she is blameless in all of this, but the parents should be going to jail at the same time. If not, expect this happen with sickening regularity.

3)Non-vaccinated kids- For the love of God people, stop believing everything you read on the Internet. Not even this site is right all the time, although I do take steps to make sure I rectify any errors. But as someone with a science background, let me tell you, there is scant evidence that vaccines are any more harmful than ever. Now the sheer amount of vaccines does have me a bit concerned, but until evidence surfaces, hard evidence, that they are bad for you, vaccinations have to occur. This past week in MN a measles outbreak was tied to one unvaccinated kid. Some of these kids may die from this, so saying it's a personal choice to do it or not is bullshit as these shitty parents are literally killing other children, including their own, for something that there is little evidence for. I know trust is hard to come by these days, and any vaccine will have side effects to a small portion of the country, but that is the price we pay for safety. Stop believing nonsense.

4)Chris Christie- In an under-reported story this week, Christie faced more problems from yet another bridge scandal, this time the Pulaski Skyway bridge. This is from NJ.com:

The Manhattan district attorney's office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are probing a 2011 agreement Christie made to use $1.8 billion in Port Authority funds to repair the Skyway, the report said. Christie pressed the bistate agency — which oversees bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey — to pay for the project even though the Skyway is owned and operated by the state and not the Authority, according to the report. Eventually, the agency said it was funding the repairs because the Skyway was an access road to the Lincoln Tunnel, even though the tunnel is miles away, the report said.

If true, that may violate state and federal security laws, according to the report.
A poll from the same site, unscientific to be clear, overwhelming said that if this is true, his chances of running for President are about as good as mine. This guy should stay clear of bridges for some time.

5)Justin Ross Harris- Every day, some poor child dies in a hot car. I cannot understand for the life of me how anyone could not remember their child was in the car with them. Apparently it does happen legitimately, which makes them terrible parents. This was not one of those cases. Harris apparently "forgot" his child in his work parking lot, and sympathy poured in. That is until video footage showed him entering his car at lunch to grab something out of it and looked up "how long does it take a child to die in a hot car," on his work computer. What a dick. His punishment should be he'll be locked up in a room filled with torture equipment and his very angry, soon to be ex-wife. Good luck in prison loser. You're going to need it.

6)Buddy Cianci- The twice former mayor of Providence, RI, both times interrupted by jail time for assault on his wife's lover and the second for corruption charges, is running again in what can only be described as pure lunacy. Could this guy win a third time? God I hope not. Considering the demographics have become much more Hispanic, younger and will have a Latino running against him, his chances as slim. But considering how dumb we have become as a people, you never can guess.

7)Shia LaBeouf- It's sad to watch someone death spiral right in front of you. Lindsay Lohan, McCauley Culkin, Amanda Byrnes and now Labeouf gets entered into the same category as these others with his terrible NYC outing. After heavy drinking for some time, he entered the former Studio 54, now a cabaret, where he proceeded to slap performer Alan Cummings on the butt, started smoking inside the building, and then loudly started interrupting the cabaret act. When escorted outside by police, he allegedly spat at one of them. Classy. His new movie Fury actually looks good, but I have a feeling he may not be getting too many more parts at this rate.

8)MA SWAT Teams- The ACLU is suing the MA SWAT teams after they refused to have documents turned over under the FOIA. They actually claimed that they were a "private enterprise" that didn't have to respond to government actions. So even though they are paid with taxpayer funds they do not have to follow some semblance of the Constitution, which would explain a lot. If this logic is true, then by rule, they are no longer acting under the public good and should be considered an invading force. Can't have it both ways guys. Anyone shooting a SWAT team member anytime soon could use this as a defense in their trial and could win as a result. You guys are major league assholes.

9)Supreme Court- These came within a hairs breath of the top spot thanks to a bevy of awful rulings. They nailed the phone privacy act but then proceeded to get rid of buffer zones for anti-abortion douchebags while keeping their own Supreme Court buffer zone active. Hypocrites. Yeah, this won't cause any problems, until someone gets shot or stabbed that is. Then they killed Aereo, a company that might have helped drive costs down on the ever growing cable bills we seem to be getting every year. The worst part was that the so-called liberals were at the fore front of a lot of these rulings. How can we impeach all of them because regardless of party affiliation, these nine are killing this country? With two major rulings on contraception and unions next week, I predict them to appear here again.

10)John Boehner- This asshole extraordinaire hit a new low this week when he said he was going to sue the president over his use of executive orders. Nevermind the fact that Obama has used them a record low amount of times and seems only to use them when the GOP screams NO at the top of their lungs over every single piece of legislation that they personally didn't introduce. It is literally killing us all as we are getting sicker, poorer and closer to the end of the world than any generation previously here in the US. Their policies consists of hating gay people and abortion and wanting to give all the money to rich people while cutting all services for the poor. In other words anarchy. Anyone still voting for these douchebags must be the same morons paying to see Transformers. Why can't anyone see how bad these two things are? The chances of Boehner winning this fight is limited, but even if it did, could permanently affect any future president including their own. This has been held up by courts time and time again and could blow up in his face come 2014. So congratulations John Boehner you are indeed douchebag of the week.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Unnamed economists are predicting a massive jump in the GDP next quarter, as echoed throughout the MSM lately, flying in the face of actual data which says something very, very different. Just yesterday, the MSM and a national relator group announced that housing was up around 5%. What they failed to tell you was that number only applies to houses worth more than 1 million dollars. Houses worth less than $500,000 barely budged. The truth lately is something very different than what is actually happening and the economic future has reached epidemic proportions that smells of desperation rather than what is actually occurring. They must see the end coming and trying everything they can to convince themselves and others that all is well when it really isn't.

The latest GDP for Q1 has been revised even lower to a whopping negative 2.9%, rather than the anemic .1% gain they tried to lie to us about. Much like the drop in Q4 for last year was blamed on the government shut down, this one has been blamed on cold air. Nevermind the fact that the rich spent money in droves during that same arctic blast, it has to be the economy of course. If one takes out cars sales (which is doing massive sub-prime loans with rising costs) and gas, retail died last month. More and more people are using their credit cards, which contrary to popular belief, is not a good sign. It means people are tapped out again and relying on high rate credit to survive.

Because we did NOTHING to fix any of the problems caused by the banks, the crows are coming home to roost. Companies, rather than raise salaries, used their wealth to buy back their own stock, causing the debt bubble we can see on front of ours eyes. Because the middle class was subjected to austerity rather than a raise, tax coffers fell even further, buying all but stopped and the economy looks like to be on life support.

Check out the graph below. The last time the GDP fell this far, the recession happened. What do you think will happen this time? Something probably far worse, as the government and corporations have nothing to prepare for the end times.

When selling starts to occur, it's going to be a stampede for the door, just like 2008. The government will have no easy fix as they have already done everything they can do, which was more or less nothing, and have no options for a second round.

The main reason for this is that the average American is out of money. No one got a raise, inflation is going though the roof, and everyone is getting hit from every angle. Our troops I just found out are paying an arm and a leg for their dental insurance, with things like root canals only being paid for once every five years. If you have more than one, the costs are triple what the average consumer pays. Two of my military friends let me know about that gem these past few days.

Because no one has any money, consumer growth has ended. Retail sales for anyone not in the upper end of the spectrum collapsed last month. Income is as low as it was in 1967 with 2014 prices. I went grocery shopping yesterday and paid double what I used to pay for everything. Inflation is hovering around 11% right now, rather than the 2% Janet Yellen lies to us about. When the economy starts to nose dive, hyperinflation is going to drive this country over the edge.

A collapse may be coming, one where money is no longer worth anything. If the derivative market goes under, and chances are very good it will at some point, the entire world economy goes poof. And then what? If you've ever seen a disaster movie, this will be like one of those. Anarchy will rule, people will die and not even the government will be able to stop it as they won't have the power to do anything about it. Soldiers will abandon their posts when the paychecks stop and their families are in real danger. It is the same scenario seen after Katrina and there is no chance of this being any different.

Contrary to what the MSM keeps telling is, orders from companies in May flat-lined. Durable goods fell to 1%, a historic low and a bad sign for 2014. Companies see that no one is buying and are ordering less goods, which is the opposite we keep being told. How long can we be lied to before we do something about it?

The point of this is that the end of the economy seems to be coming and few are prepared for the aftermath. As long as you keep voting in people like Charles Rangel (REALLY NY VOTERS?) and just about anyone in the GOP, this will keep getting worse and worse. Just remember, a lot of you voted for this.

Monday, June 23, 2014

If there are two things you can be sure of in this world it's these: One, Hillary Clinton cannot stop saying stupid things. Lately she is making Joe Biden look positively presidential in nature by simple keeping his mouth shut when he could be doing the opposite for good reason. And two, Climate Change denial is still in full swing even though visible evidence discount everything they are saying.

Let's start with Hillary Clinton. To be fair, let me say up front I do not like this woman. She strikes me as phony for lots of reasons, mostly her complete lack of ability to say the stupidest things with no recognition of what she said. That is NOT someone I want as president. Recently, Hillary claimed she was "dead broke." This did not play out well nor should it have. This past Saturday, Hillary continued her streak of really dumb bon mots when she answered a question about how her and her husband's wealth may play a problem in a time of rising inequality. She responded, wait for it, that she was not like the "truly well off" who don't pay their taxes, rich is rich, and she only became wealthy through "hard work." Yeah that book tour you got paid millions for looks brutal. I'll be happy to switch positions with you any day, Hillary. I'll wait patiently by the phone for the upcoming phone call. Yup, any minute now.

Here's Robert Reich's response:

"I wish Democrats eyeing the presidency in 2016 would talk less about their own finances and more about what they’d do to reverse rising inequality if elected. Specifically, would they (1) raise taxes on the rich to their pre-Reagan levels? (2) close giant loopholes the wealthy have arranged such as “carried interest” for hedge-fund and private-equity partners? (3) increase the minimum wage to a living wage? (4) expand the Earned Income Tax Credit? and (5) exempt the first $15,000 of income from the Social Security tax while eliminating the cap on income subject to it? Americans need to know where Democrats stand on inequality, not the size of their bank accounts."
All of these are good ideas and so far exactly no one, except for a handful of left leaning senators like Liz Warren and Bernie Saunders, are actually trying to do anything about this. Neither the left nor the right, and certainly not Hillary, is going to champion any of these unless we make her. If you guys don't start voicing your opinions stronger, you won't have a voice left. Our democracy is under attack and no one is doing anything to stop it. I tell people about it which is something. The best way to make any changes is to start getting better acquainted with what is going on and then start demanding more from our politicians. Say what you want about the Tea Party, as I do, but at least they got enough people together to get rid of Eric Cantor. Sure their candidate is even worse, but it is still a step in the right direction. If a bunch of idiots wearing revolutionary garb and tea bags from their hats can upend of a guy with millions in the bank versus a guy with nothing, anyone can be beat if enough people care. You can't rig a landslide yet. We can take this country back with nothing more violent than pulling a lever, and it has to start in 2014. Vote the GOP out and give the democrats enough rope to hang themselves. When 2016 rolls around, if enough of us are smart enough to not fall for dirty tricks, we might just be able to get someone into office and Congress who will fix this giant mess we are in.

A quick word about Joe Biden. As Iraq falls apart, as it always going to, as it's a fictional country, three states are going to emerge, instead of this nonsense which some drunken British fool drew on what appears to be a cruel bet. Joe Biden said back in 2006 that we should divide the country up according to religious views and use oil profits that would be equally shared among the three to keep them in check. It was a great idea so of course, Bush said "No fucking way," and then went back to playing with his toys while Cheney kicked Biden in the ass on the way out. Had they done this common sense approach, things would be far better than this rapidly deteriorating situation. But as Bush and Cheney screwed up the world playing Jenga with countries, Iraq looks like it is ready to fall and it may take the Middle East with it. Syria and Jordan and starting to see fighting on it's borders and Israel, as always, is a hairs breath away from killing everyone. Joe Biden has resisted the urge to give a big "I told you so," which I find admirable. If he could move further to the left and start espousing things like raising the minimum wage, legalization of weed, and fixing student loan debt, he could win. And if he behaves better than Hillary, as he did this week, he could still beat her.

The conservatives are still denying Climate Change with the Supreme Court upholding a recent EPA ruling for clear air and coal burning. but at the same exempting some businesses. As for what business are being exempted, I don't know, because God forbid someone who works in news does their freaking job. No article I could find spells out what exactly is being exempted. And they wonder why no one trusts the news anymore. In reality, the situation itself is highly confusing as the liberals won one part, 7-2, but lost the exemption rule 5-4, so everyone is happy and claiming victory which, to be honest, has to be seen to be believed as I have no idea how this will affect anyone.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph in UK, published an article from some hack named Christopher Booker, who looks like the crypt keeper in a suit. Dumb ass goes to say the world has actually been cooling for the past thirty years, using research from Stephen Goddard of the Real Science website and is false advertising to the nth degree as there is no actual science on that site. Goddard uses cherry picked info and graphs to hammer home his complete fabrication that climate change is not happening and/or it's getting colder, both of which are total bunk. I can disprove both without hardly trying. Climate change is happening as statistics conclusively show a warming trend, not the other way. We know this but actually looking at data from across the country on a day to day basis, not the hottest/coldest day ever which Goddard, Booker and other use to skewer the data. Can we please stop giving credence to theories that are not only disproven but decidedly so?

The scariest thing right now is the Ebola virus which is out of control now in Central Africa. With hundreds sick, it could be the biggest outbreak ever. The good news is is that Ebola is not that contagious. The bad news is, it could be. Airborne Ebola does exist, but it has never been seen in humans. However, the more people get it, the greater the chance for a mutation and then suddenly, it is. If that happens, its game over world, as the death toll could reach as high as 90%, although chances are it would be much lower. However, even if only 10% die, that's still 700,000,000 dead. Society would still break down as services would stop and anarchy may reign. Let us hope none of that comes to pass, which at this point, is still highly unlikely. But it still deserves attention. Just like Hillary Clinton. Pay close attention to what she is saying and ask yourself if she is really what you want. We should be demanding Liz Warren run with either Robert Reich or Bernie Sanders as her running mate. What do you think out there?

Sunday, June 22, 2014

You know things are not going your way when even Fox news can't keep a straight face when you lecture Obama about Iraq. The balls on this guy, along with a parade of losers like McCain, Rice, Kristal who seem to have no knowledge of what happened from the last Iraqi war which is odd as they are the assholes who helped sell a false narrative in the first place and really should be in jail. Let's see those runner ups.

1)Hillary Clinton- It's like she's trying to lose at this point. This woman had a really bad week. Her TERRIBLE book, which appears to have been written by a spastic three year old, bombed this week, dropping out of the Amazon top ten in it's first week. Everyone I know who has read it, and doesn't hate Hillary, says it is the worst book they've ever seen. It reads like fiction with terrible prose so bad it might as well as started with "It was a dark and stormy night." It contains the part where she says she was "dead broke," which is so not true. Yes, she was deeply in debt which is not the same as dead broke when you have ample opportunity to make it all back. Then, it what could be a moment of pure political suicide, said confiscation of guns may be the only way to keep the nation "safe." First off, crime has been dropping for decades, unlike places like Australia where the opposite is occurring, and they have no guns. Their own gun statistics say our crime rate with guns is less than theirs, go figure. More guns equal less crime. Shocker. If you want people not to vote for you in droves, say you hate guns. This is to the democrats what anti-gay legislation is to the Republicans- death by votes. Someone needs to tell this woman to shut up already and start moving left, except on gun control, if she wants to win. If not, the loss of Eric Cantor is something she needs to weigh heavily. According to what I've seen, she's not as popular as the polls make her out to be.

2)J-Lo- Speaking of crashing and burning, yet another pop star from yesterday released a new album which thudded to the ground with a tremendous splat. Joining Kanye West, who was recently booed off the stage at Bonnaroo, Jay-Z, whose latest tour is dying even with Beyoncé, and Mariah Carey, whose latest album died a painful death, Jennifer Lopez's latest was universally panned and widely ignored. Despite the fact that J-Lo is an excellent dancer and a decent actress, her musical ability is somehow worse than a combination of Yoko Ono, feedback and a cat in heat. She had a song off one of her previous albums that literally sounded like a car alarm going off. She can't sing. Please stop. The rest of us who love music beg you to do something, anything else.

3)Phillip Chism- This 14 old is a prime example of why I think the death penalty for juveniles is sometimes a good thing. This waste of space, raped and murdered his teacher, with all the callousness of a hardened criminal. This week, while in a juvenile institution in MA, he almost did it again to a female worker. He somehow got her alone when he proceeded to beat her savagely. Others intervened before he could do anything else, but this kid is clearly dangerous and will be forever. Why should we be taking care of someone who clearly cannot be rehabilitated? I know he is 14, but spending a fortune to keep him alive seems stupid when that's same money could go to someone who actually deserves it. This country needs to have serious discussion about our legal system.

4)Chelsea Clinton- It's good to be the daughter of a President. Despite the fact that she sucks at reporting, NBC news has kept her in the payroll for the past few years to the tune of $600,000. This year she will do a total of four pieces for that salary. WTF? Her stories are insipid nonsense, what they call "puff pieces," to the amount of $150,000 per. Nobody in news gets that kind of money and considering how bad she is, one wonders why NBC keeps her around. It drives me nuts when I see stuff like this, but as someone who worked in network TV, with savage employment cuts and horrifically bad pay, now I know where all the money goes. Just like life, money trickles up.

5)The Redskins AND the patent office- Here is case where both sides are acting kind of douche. Dan Snyder has to wake up and realize that the name has to go because at this point it is an embarrassment. The patent office, on the other hand, has to stop acting like the Gestapo and demanding things like this, that could have serious repercussions for other franchises, like the Cleveland Indians or Atlanta Braves, while also restricting free speech. Either way, the name has to go, Dan. Face facts already.

6)Janet Yellen- This week, the FED grandma did a stand up routine that killed. Or it would have had she been trying to be funny. With a totally straight face, Yellen said things like the economy is getting better (it isn't), housing is improving (also untrue), and jobs were coming back (that pay nothing). The best was when she inflation was too low and needs to be raised to risk deflation. Even the MSM howled at this as fuel and food are skyrocketing, but as the CPI doesn't include those, she technically didn't lie. However, as tuition and even health care is going up, up, up, most have noticed the real inflation rate is hovering right now between 8-11%. Housing stats are falling for the eighth straight month, and the government, having used the government shut down and the cold weather as excuses, are struggling to invent a new situation to explain housing falling still. Good luck with that. Yellen is either a liar, incompetent or incredibly stupid. Your pick.

7)Scott Walker- I hate Scott Walker. They should have thrown him out of office first chance they got, but the people of Wisconsin are borderline retarded and didn't during the recall. Now it comes out that Walker benefitted from outside Superpacs which he directly contacted during this whole ordeal, illegal in Wisconsin. The FBI is investigating. If there is a God, this ass will be in jail by this this time next year. He won't, but I can dream.

8)ISIS- These douchebags are going to get a lot of Muslims dead. Can we please round up all the extremists from all religions, drop them at Meggido, and just let them duke it out? Last man standing gets their own island to run as they wish and leave the rest of us alone. Until they attack us and then we wipe them out too. There is no reasoning with these people, which was a central theme in the Train your Dragon movie, which was awesome by the way. Not the usual, talk will solve every problem philosophy most kids movies have. It's also true. You can't make peace with people who want you dead. It's you or them. And until we understand that, these kinds of dicks are going to ruin it for the rest of us. Because of this, oil is going up as speculators wet themselves every time anything happens in the Middle East which is always. It's why gas had been at mid three dollars for years. If these guys get their way, expect more war, more death, more money spent. Cool.

9)IRS-I still don't think there is a scandal here, but the IRS is all but saying there is due to a stunning lack of concern over a big deal. With the witch hunt going on from Issa's office, it came to light that several hard drives crashed, and tens of thousands of emails cannot be recovered. They do know that email's are stored on servers, not computers right? It seems awfully convenient that Lois Lerner, along with eight others under investigation all had computer crashes that made these emails unrecoverable. Why did the company Sonasoft not have copies of the emails, as they were contracted to do? Why does the IRS destroy their own internal emails every six months, but I have to have seven years of returns? If nothing is going on, they certainly are making it look like the exact opposite.

10)Dick Cheney- Cheney should be behind bars for leaking Valarie Plame as a NOC, 9/11 questions such as why did he tell the air force to stand down as the hijacked plane was approaching the Pentagon, or even shooting his friend in the face while drunk. The fact that under his Presidency, as he was the real power behind the throne, he destroyed this nation in every way possible. For him to get up and give any advice about anything is hubris to the nth degree. However, even conservatives couldn't get behind him, unless you were named Limbaugh or Hannity who were just as wrong as the politicians were. He got eviscerated on Megan Kelly, who went two for two this week when she also commented that Dinesh D'Souza had lost his mind for comparing the US to a child molester. Many asked what gave this guy the right to give advice in Iraq when every single thing he predicted was wrong. EVERY SINGLE THING. Would you hire a bookie who was always wrong? Of course not. So congratulations Dick Cheney, you are indeed douchebag of the week.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

I love the law of unintended consequences when it comes to back to slap someone across the face. The Republicans have mastered the art of this from Todd Akin's infamous "legitimate rape" comment, to Michelle Bachmann claiming that people suffering from mental diminishment are because they are getting a HPV vaccine and that pearl is taken from some random woman that probably doesn't exist, and other bon mots that make rational human say, "There is no way in hell I am voting for that person." Lately, there has been such a spat of stupidity from the right, even GOP diehards are stating to wince.

Take Dinesh D’Souza, best known for making awful anti-Obama movies (who the right was pissed didn't get an Oscar nod, but considering the left leanings of Hollywood, they would have had a better chance with a humanizing Hitler documentary than this piece of garbage). While appearing on Megan Kelly's Fox show this week, Dinesh had his usual bag of tricks to use against the President. Nevermind the fact this guy is a convicted criminal awaiting sentencing for campaign finance fraud, Fox news got more than they bargained for here. Dinesh, who must be psychic as he appears to be reading the President's brain, said that when Obama says he wants to change the country, he must first destroy what is there.

He went on to say, Obama comes from a generation who believe the US is evil, which is untrue. I am of his generation and we do not think the US is evil. Corporations on the other hand. Obama doesn't believe either and his record shows this. But why let facts get in the way of good ribbing, right? Here's the rest of it from Fox News:

“You can say this group believes in American Exceptionalism, but instead of believing that we’re exceptionally good, they believe we’re exceptionally evil,” he said.Kelly played devil’s advocate, protesting that if Obama didn’t love the U.S., “Why would he want to be president of it?”“It’s not that he hates America,” D’Souza said. “It’s not like he wants to take America down. It’s almost like this: If I was in a family and I believed my dad was some kind of a serial killer or a child molester, I would still love him. He would still be part of my family, but I’d do everything I could to prevent him from doing these evil actions.”

He continued, “I would think that would be good for the world and for my dad. So with Obama, he believes he’s doing the world a favor and America a favor by controlling this rogue elephant that is the United States.”Kelly asked, “So America is the child molester in this scenario?”“I’m just trying to follow, Dinesh,” she said, “I think we may have jumped off the deep end.”
When Fox news calls you nuts, you are indeed nuts. This is not an anomaly but par for the course this week.

Then there's Lee Atwater's widow Sally who is running for school superintendent in South Carolina. That right there should give anyone pause as SC is not known for top class schools and high intellect. I apologize to anyone smart who resides in the state but even they have to admit they don't exactly live in an area known for brainy wisdom.

Feeling safe as always, Sally went on a conservative radio talk show, because these guys rarely stray from their safety bubble, she instead managed to put both feet in her mouth as she demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge on multiple topics. She dodged questions on sex ed teaching and evolution, that made her sound both wishy washy and ill informed. Worse, listeners said she sounded like a "democrat." That's funny as this is the same thing that took down Cantor. Voters on both sides want real answers not vague generalities and the word NO. Double talk is done.

And then there is the matter of tenure which is now up in the air due to a recent ruling in California that eliminated this long standing rule. Tenure is important as it's one of the few protections anyone has in job security anymore. It would figure the GOP would like to get rid of this, along with all unions, so they can go back to paying us nothing and working us until we die. Good times. Look, I do think tenure protects some teachers who should have been fired years ago but instead of getting rid of the whole thing how about a more streamlined process to fire some teachers while protecting their rights at the same time. It is never all of nothing, no matter what the right says.

As a result of tenure being used less and less, with adjunct professors taking over the roles of tenured ones and schools using non-union workers, some are being fired for their beliefs, or exactly what tenure is supposed to be there for.

An atheist teacher as fired from a charter school, otherwise known as GOP wet dream school, was done so because of the evangelical nature of the board and his opposite views. Now while I doubt he fits the right wing mold as few atheists are right wingers, he is an example of things to come. This is exactly why the right wants to control schools as then they control education and brainwash our kids into thinking climate change is a hoax, evolution is a lie, and Ronald Regan was god. Awesome. The Republicans want to privatize everything and is the main reason for them sabotaging the Post Office, the EPA and Education.

However, that sword goes both ways as one nutbag, Adam Heller, 35, from NY was recently fired for harboring ideas that Sandy Hook was a hoax and had purchased a bunch of guns. Apparently he made these comment to a "medium" he was playing Words with Friends with. The medium became alarmed by what he was saying and contacted the FBI who, seeing he had made multiple gun purchases, alerted the school board who promptly fired him. Technically this guy did nothing wrong, but as he was a card carrying right winger, voting for them cost him his job as tenure, like union, is a bad word. But when that pendulum swings the other way, they get squished just as hard.

Here's the worst part: they committed him for five days while figuring out if he was a threat to society. He refused to help, leading the doctors to say he may be a threat still but as he wasn't helping they had no way of knowing, which helped lead to his firing. At the very least, Heller was just another idiot believing stupid crap on the internet. Sandy Hook happened as did the Boston Bombings. If anyone tells you different, laugh and move on. These people are, in reality, retarded. Not everything is a conspiracy losers.

The right is filled with delusional people. It is refreshing to see some on the right agree.

Monday, June 16, 2014

I hate being right all the time. For years I have told people that the stock market is rigged via ways seen in movies like Superman 3 and Office Space, which many scoffed at it, until it was revealed this year that that is exactly what is going on in the book Flash Boys. I also have said banks are joining corporations and buying stock at record levels for unknown reason. Again, ridicule by those that "know better." Until today, when the Financial Times reported that they have uncovered hard evidence that banks are indeed buying equities to the tune of $29.1 trillion. To be clear, $29.1 trillion is roughly a third of what this country's total wealth is, and when they fall, which they inevitably will, do not have enough money to cover said losses. Point, The Warmonger.

400 public sector institutions, including just about every major bank, investment firm, and hedge fund on Earth in 162 countries, are invested in an asset that could potentially contribute to overheated prices, which many suspect the Fed to be behind in order to protect the collapse of the dollar. This could also explain the haste by which many countries seem to want away from the dollar, such as China moving to have the Rimini be the new world currency, which if it goes through could destroy our economy overnight.

The FT goes on to say that many have explained the irrationality of the recent stock market (which also proves that while the MSM and government have all been rah rah rahing us to death while knowing the whole time the economy is a shaky house of cards) by corporate buy backs. But this new evidence suggest far worse going ons, that banks are gambling with money that far outweighs what they could pay back. Think gambling addict off the wagon and playing craps at Shifty Eddie's House of Broken Legs. Try the veal it's excellent.

This also explains how China is still going strong, making me wonder if what is really going on is some sort of cold war economic warfare that is going to destroy the one least prepared. Who honestly thinks we are ahead of the Chinese here? But China is indeed divesting heavily into equities that everyone else is bailing out of.

In a survey of 60
central bankers this month by Central Banking
Publications and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, 23 percent said they own
shares or plan to buy them. The Bank of Japan, holder of the second-biggest reserves, said
April 4 it will more
than double investments in equity exchange-traded funds to 3.5 trillion yen
($35.2 billion) by 2014. The Bank of Israel bought stocks for the first time last year while
the Swiss National Bank and the Czech National Bank have
boosted their holdings to at least 10 percent of reserves.

“In the last year
or so, I have spoken with 103 central banks on diversification,” Gary Smith, London-based global head of official institutions
at BNP Paribas Investment Partners,
which oversees about $649 billion, said in a phone interview. “If reserves are
growing, so are diversification pressures. Equities are not for every bank
tomorrow, but more are continuing down this path.”

Managers of banks’
assets are looking for alternatives to holding government bonds after efforts to
stimulate growth from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank
of England helped
send yields near to record lows. Central banks’ foreign-
exchange holdings have increased by about $8.5 trillion globally in the past
decade, exceeding levels needed for day-to-day currency
administration.

And of course Europe is also is heavily invested with the Swiss National Bank and the Danish Central bank heavily invested (to name just two of many), even tough both are leveraged to the hilt and any sudden downturn and these two, among everyone's else, goes poof. Then what? When money ceases to have value, what will happen next?

This is a giant Ponzi scheme where dumb money is banks buying stock that everyone else has long abandoned. This means they are loaning themselves money to gamble with. Good luck with that strategy.

Check out this graph

GDP continues to fall because no one is paying anything anymore, which means as bad as Communism was, Karl Marx saw the inherent failures of Capitalism as well. Capitalism is failing, make no mistake about that. We are rapidly approaching a singularity of technological advances, population overgrowth and radicalization of men; that a tragedy of epic proportions is coming. There are not enough jobs to pay everyone anymore. Corporations are not raising salaries. Hell, the GOP wants us to make LESS. Technology is going to make 40% of all jobs obsolete over the next ten years. Money is falling apart. So what next?

Look at how much debt this country is in. Notice that as soon as we started moving away from everything that was working like corporation paying taxes at all and the rich paying in the 90% range. The further we have moved from that, as well as stagnating salaries which this graph also follows, the worse things have gotten.

We have allowed the lunatics to take over the asylum. Notice it was starting to correct itself until politicians and corporations got involved and injected even more capital into a deflating bubble. They do know this thing is going to pop right?

The same can be seen below where people tried to get off of credit cards, that sounded awesome at first until it became apparent that you cannot survive on what you are being paid. Day to day is fine, but any emergency and it's credit card time. Because nothing changed for the average person, the Depression never ended. They just said it did and not to worry about it. WE need to.

Consumer credit has gone up 22% over the past three years and record numbers of people used their cards in March, which explains the big jump in sales because the last two months NO ONE spent anything. If you exclude fuel and cars (which are being given away right now in a new bad mortgage scheme and average cost is around $450 a month), every single expenditure fell last month. Health care even dropped 2% which never happens. Did 2% of the population not get sick last month or did they not get enough money to cover their illness and decided to tough it out? The former seems unlikely as people seem to be getting sicker by the day, partially spurned by people not willing to get their kids vaccinated.

No one bought clothes, electronics, food, watches, nothing. And the ones that showed a profit where, surprise, surprise, high end retail outlets like Nordstrom's. This is not a sustainable society for much longer and we are letting it happen.

In short, we have a society drowning in debt in rising mortgage payments, unaffordable tuition, credit card debt, underwater houses (which 52% of this country still has) while the government is gambling with our pensions, 401ks and IRA's. Don't you think it's time for an intervention already? We need to give the democrats all the rope to hang themselves with and get rid if the insane GOP. When the democrats fail, which they most likely will, then we can decide on a new path, one that incudes neither. And if they won't let us, at that point, we will have to make them.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

There are few times in history where you can watch someone build a Frankenstein monster, have it run rampant against an unaware public only to have it return and destroy it's creator. That is exactly what happened to Eric Cantor who lost spectacularly and not for the reasons the press is touting out. Let's see those runner ups.

1)Hillary Clinton- Everyone talks about Joe Biden having foot in mouth disease but in reality Hilary is far worse. She sunk her campaign for president when it turned out that story she told about being shot at in Bosnia was total bull and people looked at her as a liar. She continued with the "what difference does it make," comment during the idiotic Benghazi hearings, for which I agreed with her, but should have been phrased differently. Now she has done the same by suggesting she was "dead broke," after leaving the White House. To be fair, the Clintons were millions in debt but book advances and speaking fees erased that number quickly, something the average man never would be able to do. Had she said she left the White House "massively in debt," she could have used that to sympathize with people going through the same thing, as long as she acknowledged that her circumstances were very different than the average person. Instead. she sounded like a typical politician who has no real idea what dead broke means. She keeps this up, she won't be a front runner for long, which would be 2008 all over again.

2)Ted Cruz and the Texas GOP-Last week, we had these brain powers place homosexual therapy as one of their platform ideas, which is basically praying the gay away, and does NOT work. This week, the Algonquin Table strikes again, wanting to eliminate the minimum wage as a way to spur employment. They are literally trying to bring back slavery. Nevermind the fact that giving people less money has NEVER worked anywhere, not to mention the fact that in places where it is being tried, like EU countries and Detroit, the effects have been catastrophic. I am dying to see how well Seattle and SF do now that they are raising their minimum wage to 15 dollars and hour. Record growth I would guess. Why is Ted Cruz near the top of polls for GOP president? They do know this ass has no chance right? And where are the birthers on all of this as he was born in CANADA?My head hurts.

3)Rap Music- An article from Cannonfire recently noticed that the worst fashion statement ever, the pants down below someone's ass, is now twenty years old. This is solid proof that there is no fashion evolution happening anymore as can anyone name a fashion trend ever that has gone on like this? This should have burned out years ago, especially considering the fact that this is a gay signal for people in prison signifying their willingness to be the girl. Why is this still popular? Rap music however is not showing the same longevity. Right now, albums from Kanye West, 50 Cent and Jay-Z have all woefully underperformed. Even for non-rap acts like Mariah Carey whose album plummeted out of the top 100 this week, things look grim. As someone who pays very close attention to music, there has been a huge shift away from rap, auto-tune and emo towards a much more 80's sound, including even punk rock again. All things ebb and fade and rap music, which will still be around for years to come, will also not be the powerhouse it once was. RIP rap, some of it will be missed, most of it will be thankfully forgotten.

4)Edge of Tomorrow- Speaking of fading, Tom Cruise just hit his eighth bomb in a row that wasn't called Mission Impossible. If it wasn't for the fact that he still makes money overseas, he wouldn't be starring in much of anything by this point. The worst part was, I hear this movie was very good. But it had several things against it. One was the awful title, a replacement for the equally awful ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, but this sounds like a freaking soap opera. Whoever named this dud is probably no longer working at whatever studio produced this. The other is the fact that while Doug Liman is a very good director, this movie showed absolutely no visual creativity what so ever. It literally looked like every single other sci-fi movie made over the last decade. Cruise better hope Mission 6 is a huge hit because otherwise his prospects are going to diminish greatly.

5)Michael Bloomberg- I always hated this dick. His nanny state NYC policies rubbed me wrong and now his anti-gun crap has gone too far. Every media outlet picked up his "statistic" that there have been 74 school shootings out of 77 weeks. It was repeated by NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, MSNBC and even the Daily Show. You know who didn't report it and even debunked it? CNN of all people. Who would have thought CNN would have on actual news. Turns out the stat used every instance it could to rig the numbers including drug shootings that happened after school was out, guns found but not used and other data that obscured the fact that the actual number of school shootings over the last two years is 15, not 74. Or in other words, not even close. It is this kind of junk science that is making people not trust vaccines, global warming science or much of anything anymore. Way to destroy society you ass.

6)DEA- Speaking of destroying society with bad science, a new look at DEA research by professionals noticed a distinct lack of science in any of their predictions or findings, going so far as to saying it was garbage. They found that the DEA had a material reason to find all drugs harmful as that would keep them employed and with plenty of funding. They destroyed the DEA's opinion on marijuana legalization as hopelessly naïve and poorly constructed and found they were dramatically overestimating the problem while almost completely ignoring prescription drugs altogether, even though they kill more people than all the other drugs combined. Can we please just get rid if this worthless organization once and for all?

7)Iraq- The country is falling apart as it always was going to. Sunni and Shia hate one another and until one beats the other off the planet, this kind of violence is going to continue. The country is breaking into three areas, the Kurds to the north being the third, which will make Turkey lose their minds as well as they have similar separatists problems. Iraq was a bad idea by the British to force their will upon an area where it was never going to work. No matter how long we stayed, this was inevitable.

8)John McCain, Dick Cheney and every other asshole who got us into Iraq in the first place- You'd never know it from their appearances this week, but these two and others have been damning Obama up and down for the very mistakes they made. Cheney must be suffering from dementia as Bush was the one who signed the pact to leave by 2011 in 2008, but now tells Obama he's the one that caused all these problems. Please! And McCain seems to want to bomb everyone making me thank God he and Palin aren't in office now of this country would be even worse. Republicans better realize that blaming Obama here is not going to work with a vast majority of us who remember exactly what happened. You broke it. You fix it.

9)Tea Party/David Brat- The Tea Party had a big upset with Brat's big win over Cantor, but their victories this election year have been few and far between. Even funnier, if you read their platform you realize that this group wants an end to ALL government, the very definition of is anarchy. These morons have moved so far to the right, they are now to the far left, which is where the anarchists thrive. Way to go idiots, you're become ultra-liberals. Mosel Tov. As for David Brat, he must be the worst economics teacher in the country. When asked about the minimum wage he replied he doesn't have much of an opinion on it right now. You teach economics you idiot. It would be like asking me what I thought of GTA 5 and I replied I'd rather not talk about it. WTF? Brat is the usual idiot brought about by the Tea Party with no ideas, no plan, just anarchy. Enjoy the far left.

10)Eric Cantor- I loathe Cantor so I did an actual jig when he lost. He was the epitome of a Beltway insider who talked out of both sides of his mouth and that fact alone may have sealed his fate. People hate wishy washy and Cantor was all of that. Immigration reform played some part in his loss but not as much as the press made it out to be as Lindsay Graham is much more pro-immigration reform and he crucified his Tea Party opponent. Two things sank Cantor. First, he's Jewish. Republicans love Israel but they hate Jews and this loss now makes the GOP the rich, white Christian party as well as being 90% male. That's some diversity you got going guys. Second, Cantor treated his constituents as if they didn't matter. He was so busy looking at big money be forgot that votes still matter, even if it's to a far lesser extent than they used to. Locals say he ignored their pleas to meet with them and seemed more interested in corporations rather than the voters. This is the ultimate wake up call for all politicians that both sides of the aisle are clamoring for change and populist ideals. If you act like you're above the whole thing, you may lose badly. So congratulations Eric Cantor, you are indeed douchebag of the week.